Falling in love with extraordinary engagement rings

Photograph by: Handout photo
, Linda Penwarden

Engagement rings symbolize eternal love and commitment, but they also represent someone’s ability to handle the pressure of picking the perfect one. As if the decision to commit your life and love to another wasn’t enough, selecting an engagement ring which your love squeals at the sight of - and whose friends and family do too - is a massive challenge, to say the least.

According to Toronto-based jeweler, Linda Penwarden, both popularity and eco-social components can influence an engagement ring decision. “A lot of guys get pressured by what their friends are choosing and they want to one-up them.” However, being creative may reap more surprise excitement than being competitive.

A recently-engaged girlfriend of mine felt a white diamond didn’t fit her personality and gave her partner plenty of motivation to get creative. The ring he offered her, in addition to lifelong devotion, was a rough-cut raw diamond similar in colour and clarity to a dark lager beer - she can’t walk a city block without someone ogling her unique bling.

The popular wedding info destination, The Knot, lists this year’s other most popular ring styles as floral-detailed bands and “East West” set stones, where the main diamond is placed horizontally to make it appear larger. Vintage-inspired settings remain popular because they appear “classic” and traditional (and may be perceived to denote long-lasting unions). However, though trends and socio-eco pressures exist, no two loves are alike and neither should their symbolic rings be.

At Linda Penwarden, custom designed rings are the specialty - either an interpretation of a ring Linda’s created already, or something brand new a couple dreams up. What Penwarden will not do, however, is copy someone else’s design. “I don’t knock off”, and why would she? The options for creativity are endless and enticing.

Diamonds are available in a rainbow of colours beyond white. Some of Penwarden’s favourite diamonds are in muted shades of cognac, citrus-y green and earthy pink. Not only are they interesting and rare to see, but they’re less expensive too. A bright canary yellow diamond can run higher in price than a white diamond, but a beautifully muted yellow stone costs less. One of the most affordable diamonds is also the edgiest: black diamonds, darkened by carbon and sourced from either Russia or Canada, are a fraction of the cost and look so awesome and alternative that Penwarden has dubbed them the “anti-diamond”.

Sapphires, too, are available in a full rainbow of colours (not just the familiar blue) and can be quite budget-friendly. They’re the second hardest stones (next to diamonds) and are a great choice for a couple with a colour representing something in their life. Penwarden cautions fellows to practice a little restraint on extreme colours and stone cuts, however. In one instance, a gent’s request for a bright pink heart-shaped sapphire was pared down to a softer pink oval sapphire after asking for a second opinion from his future mother-in-law. The resulting ring was a sensation, but the original concept could have been considered over-the-top.

The most difficult stone to source is Alexandrite, probably the rarest stone in the world . It’s a colour-change stone where under warm light it turns ruby red and, under cool light, emerald green. It’s from Russia and, warns Penwarden, “you’ll never find it”. She can find nearly anything else though! On one occasion, Linda scoured her global network of stone sources for one specific Canadian diamond to match a pair of her client’s earrings perfectly - she eventually found it in Hong Kong and flew the diamond home.

As for cost, having a ring custom-made doesn’t mean you’ll break the bank. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how Linda had designed a sweet and understated diamond ring for a gentleman with a $1000 budget, including materials and hours to make it. Price has a lot to do with metal, not just stone. The $1000 ring had very little gold - one way to manage a budget is to spend more on the setting and invest again in a larger stone ten years down the road. White gold is the least-expensive metal that Penwarden would recommend. Silver is less costly but quite soft and can dent and scratch easily - 14 carat gold is ideal.

Another area where engagement rings are moving away from convention is with same-sex marriages. Linda says that same-sex couples are initiating a new concept of engagement rings; ones which fit together like two puzzle pieces and obviously belong together if spotted across the room. Since she’s begun designing “same-sex” engagement rings, some have had stones and others haven’t but most couples have opted for a combination engagement ring and wedding band. Linda loves designing these rings, as it’s not just one woman who’ll be wearing the bling.

However, in her ten years of designing custom engagement rings, the only thing Penwarden has yet to see is a woman taking the initiative to design one for her boyfriend. Whether that becomes a future trend, we’ll have to wait and see!

Customizing an engagement ring requires about six weeks. Here are the steps:

- After booking a consultation, Linda will work with her client to set a budget.

- She then brings in stones to educate the buyer on the 4 Cs of diamonds (colour, cut, clarity, carats) and to contrast and compare under magnification.

- Once a stone has been selected, a sketch is drawn and either a computer-assisted design is generated or a wax model is made by hand.

- From the prototype, alterations and tiny tweaks are made to the ring until the design is perfect.

- After final approval has been given on the completed ring, Linda sends the ring to a third-party jewelry appraiser for insurance purposes.